PREACHING IN THE
MIKE CUNNINGHAM
APRIL 26, 2009
This morning I would like to attempt to give
you folks an idea of some of what occurs behind the scenes in the lives of
faithful pastors as they each prayerfully struggle to craft their sermon.
I’m doing this in hopes the folks whom the Lord has called these men to watch
over, and for whom one day each pastor must give an accounting to God for
the kind of job he did, (Hebrews 13:17). I’m praying the women and men in
their congregations will be motivated to constantly lift their pastors up
in fervent prayer just as he does for each of them. By way of definition,
I define a faithful pastor as being a man such as the great Apostle Paul,
who wrote in his first letter to the Corinthian Christians:
1
And I, when
I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of
God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to
know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you
in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not
in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
5 that your faith might
not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God, 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 (ESV).
In his excellent book entitled: Overcoming the
World, Joel Beeke writes: “This apostle who claimed to preach all the council
of God also claimed to preach only Christ. That is to say, to
preach the whole council of God is to preach Christ. Paul does not
say that Christ is only his primary focus; he says that Christ is his only
subject. Of course Christ is the center of his message and its primary subject.
But more than that, Paul says “Christ
is the sum and substance of what I preach.” Apart from Christ crucified, there
is nothing of equal value to talk about. And to Paul’s words and that
quote from Joel Beeke, I add a hearty Amen!
Speaking to you folks this morning
as one of those divinely called pastors I would like to share the genesis
of how it came about that I preached the last of a three part series of sermons
on Easter and some of the obstacles I encountered along the way. In each of
these sermons and in your presence, I poured my heart out to God with an obvious
Christ-centered very passionate prayer. It all started a few days after last
Christmas. I was still saddened by the very disturbing information which was
shared with me a few moments after the service on the Sunday before Christmas
ended. I asked our Father to bless me with a new story to share with
you folks. I wanted it to be a uniquely original, very creative inspirational
story which would exalt his Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I
also asked Him to let me have it sometime before Easter and that I preferred
leaving the timing of its arrival up to Him.
I based my hopes on some of His promises and
so I prayed something like this: “Father, you know that for more than a couple
of years I start each day thanking you for blessing me so much the previous
day. I always ask for your forgiveness for those times I sinned against you,
and I always thank you for forgiving me through your Sons accomplishment on
His cross. Then I always ask you to help me to glorify you in my every thought,
word and deed throughout however much of this new day you have planned for
me to experience. I also you to help me to love you with all on my mind, heart,
soul and strength, and all my neighbors as I do myself, however unlovable
they may be at times. Next, I always ask you to provide me with whatever is
necessary for me to overcome every temptation not to do so. Should it become
necessary, then I ask you to strongly jog my memory and remind me I am sinning
against you and disgracing the church your Son paid such a horrendous price
to purchase whenever I don’t obey you. I always follow that request by asking
for your continued deliverance from evil of my loved ones, including all the
folks at New Covenant and Harvest Time and certain other special people you
had planned to cross paths with me at one time or another. I’m offering these
prayers up to you Father with the utmost confidence that you will respond
to each of them with infinite wisdom and perfect love and I’m praying them
in the name of your beloved Son.” I included the request for a new story every
morning without exception and, as I’m in the habit of doing, continued thanking
him and asking him on and off throughout the course of the day for granting
all those special requests. Finally, every night before falling asleep I thanked
him for his continuing mercy and faithfulness and once again reminded him
I was still eagerly looking forward to receiving that new story.
January and February came and went followed by
March. All those prayers were answered every single day with one exception.
I still didn’t have a clue as to what my special story would look like. I
started to get somewhat concerned since Easter was just around the corner.
Then certain events and other disturbing bits of information started to occupy
my mind. Events such as the Vermont Legislature seriously considering enacting
a law legalizing same-sex marriage and reliable statistics attesting to the
fact Christ’s Church in our country was in a pathetic state. I was so saddened
by this state of affairs that I went to the Lord in fervent prayer and I asked
Him to help me to respond in a Christ honoring manner in my next sermon. I
pleaded with Him for the wisdom, insight and strength and everything else
I needed to come up with that kind of a response. He did, and I preached a
sermon I called “A PASTORS LAMENT FROM THE DARKNESS OF
After I preached my follow-up sermon on Palm
Sunday it started to dawn on me that what was to become known as ‘My Lament
Series” was God’s answer to that special prayer request I had been pleading
with Him for since shortly after Christmas. I decided my third sermon in that
series which I planned to preach of Easter would be the last in which I would
use that particular style of proclaiming spiritual truth to you folks as well
as those who would read them later. While I was prayerfully crafting that
final sermon my personal demons let loose with a vengeance just as they always
do whenever I’m exposing those evil satanic forces of darkness (Ephesians
5:11)in order to equip each of you to be used by God to crush Satan under
your feet (Romans 16:20). They fired off what seemed like a barrage of demonically
inspired thoughts. Those divinely ordained challenges had to be overcome if
I was to preach that Easter sermon. For instance, constant reminders of the
fact that ten years previously when I turned sixty five I started asking Him
to allow and give me the strength to serve Him and be with my family and also
minister to you folks for another ten years even though I would probably have
to witness some very heartbreaking things concerning those folks I love the
most. Obviously that included every member of my family, all the folks in
our church and Harvest Time, and other special people He had brought into
my life,
While I was crafting my Easter message I had to fight off demonic suggestions that
since I was nearing the end of the ten year period God had graciously given
me and now my life would soon be over. Simultaneously, I was confronted with
another very serious divinely ordained challenge which I’m still almost immersed
in. Needless to say, that one was always on my mind and hindered my ability
to collect and arrange my thoughts for that Easter sermon and this one today.
All things considered, that Easter sermon was
exceptionally difficult to craft. Although I prayed and prayed even to the
point of begging Him, progress was very, very slow. The night before I was
to preach it I typed as much as I was physically able. Then I thanked Him
for His continuing blessings in answering my special daily prayers and I crawled
into bed exhausted at ten o’clock. I got up at midnight for a couple of minutes
and once again pleaded with Him for help with what was to be my Resurrection
Day sermon before going back to bed and sleep. Later I awoke again and started
pleading with Him all over. I reminded Him I had so much more work to do.
So much so, that I got up. It was now two fifteen. I was hoping and praying
He would enable me to finish it in an hour or two so I could go back to bed
and get a little more sleep before I had to get up for the day. I kept on
praying and working but I had to stop at five thirty.
Before starting I sat down in my favorite chair
in our darkened living room and once again poured out my heart to our Father.
I pleaded with Him and literally cried as I begged Him to please be merciful
and help me. I didn’t want to let Him or you folks down. I was so disappointed
with what I had already produced that I considered chucking it and recycling
an old Easter message. Knowing you folks as I do, I was sure you would understand.
The truth is I was ashamed of what I had put together. Once again I tearfully
reminded him he knew that in Christ’s strength I had been trying real hard
to live my life in a manner which was pleasing to him. I reminded Him that
he has promised to honor all those who honor him, (1 Samuel 2:30) and that,
unless he showed me otherwise, I could expect him to honor me with a Resurrection
Sunday message. I again pleaded with him to help me resist the temptation
to become anxious because I didn’t want to sin against him by not trusting
him and worry about that sermon. I reminded him that I had been sincerely
seeking to put his kingdom and his righteousness before anyone or anything
else in my life and I expected him to meet this need, (Matthew 7:33). I pointed
out that right now I needed that message to share in a couple of hours with
those folks he called me to watch over. I told him that unless he tells me
otherwise I will continue to believe that when I try real hard to live like
this I’m truly delighting myself in him and that I expect him to give me the
desires of my heart, (Psalm 37:4). And that morning I sure desired a Christ-centered
sermon very much.
Those prayers were immediately followed by another
bombardment of fiery darts fired at me from all directions. They materialized
as thoughts suggesting I was too old to be doing this kind of stuff. I ought
to pack it in and retire and devote the rest of my life being concerned only
about my family. Who could fault me for making such a decision? After all, I’m almost seventy-six. But then
those demonically inspired thoughts were pushed aside by godly ones and I
was able to visualize the unseen spiritual warfare being fought by those demonic
forces of darkness and God’s holy angels who wanted to minister to me,
(Psalm 34:7; 91: 11-12; Matthew 18:10; Hebrews 1: 7, 14). I was the battlefield; just as you folks are whenever you
are hounded by your own personal demons as each of you make your own way through
this dark sin infested world on your way to our real home. Those angelic
beings once again jogged my memory: Our times are in his hands,” (Psalm 31:15)
and he will discharge each of us from his army at the precise moment he has
already determined back in eternity past.
I got up from the chair and started the daily
routine of getting ready. During breakfast another disturbing newspaper article
caught my attention, and I let it sink in. After breakfast I returned to my
favorite chair to take another look at that poor excuse for a sermon. As I
reread it I got the surprise of my life. It seemed as though I was reading
it through a different set of eyes. I actually liked it. So much so, that
I became energized and could hardly wait to share my Resurrection Day sermon
with you folks. In Christ’s strength, I preached that Christ-centered scripture
drenched sermon with such passionate heartfelt exuberance that no one should
have had difficulty understanding it or get the impression I didn’t love them
or wasn’t concerned about their final dwelling place after they leave this
world. That night I sent it out to you folks who heard it preached and those
who read it on line. I mentioned the fact it was my final sermon in which
I would use that particular style of preaching to present spiritual truth
unless our Lord convinced me otherwise through them. It seemed as though it
was less than five minutes when I received the first feedback. It was from
a person whose opinion I value and for which I’m very appreciative. Allow
me to share.
“No. I personally do not like this
"style" you have been using whatever it is called. Reading your notes verbatim and reading a narrative
that you wrote is not preaching to me. It is very hard to find the "spiritual
truth" you refer to in this format. I
prefer expository preaching from the Word of God. Working through a passage-systematically-thoroughly-thoughtfully-reverently. Just my thoughts since you asked for them.”
Speaking in his excellent book entitled
Preaching And Preachers, Lloyd-Jones asks: "What, then, is this form
that should characterize a sermon? I suggest it is something like this. As
you start preparing your sermon you must begin with the exposition of your
passage or single verse. This is essential, this is vital; as I have said,
all preaching must be expository, [emphasis added]. You do not start
with a thought, even though it be a right thought, a good thought; you do
not start with that, and then work out an address on that. You must not do
that, because, if you do, you will find that you will be tending to say the
same thing each time; you will be repeating yourself endlessly. If there were
no other argument for expository preaching this, to me, would be sufficient
in and of itself; it will preserve and guarantee variety and variation in
your preaching. It will save you from repetition; and that will be a good
thing for your people as well as for yourself!"
Personally, I love expository sermons. There
is a time and place for them, just as there is for topical, narrative, and
my kind of sermons whatever mine are called. But to suggest expository is
the only acceptable kind of a sermon God uses to convey spiritual truth to
his children is in my opinion wrong. To borrow a favorite phrase from Marty,
my pistol-packen preacher friend from Texas, I have to say: “I respectfully
disagree” with my critic and Lloyd-Jones and now I’m going to try to explain
why in this sermon. As its title “Preaching
in the Kingdom of Darkness” implies, it isn’t easy.
For instance, those demonic slime-balls let me have it with a fury
far exceeding that of a “hundred women who had been scorned.” In addition
to the usual demonically influenced venom gushing out at me from the mouths
of unsuspecting people completely oblivious of their presence, a new divinely
ordained challenge suddenly appeared on the scene. At my annual physical a
lump was discovered and there is a possibility I may have Prostate cancer.
I had already prayed before I had that exam that His perfect will be done.
He also knows one of the greatest fears I have is that I don’t want to disgrace
his Son and his Sons church by the way I might handle what could be a long
miserable experience. I kept being pounded by the enemy with suggestions such
as these: Those ten years you asked God for are going to be up in a few weeks
and then you will be history. God will have given you all you had asked for.
Your days are numbered old man. You will soon be out of our hair. Good riddance!
But those thoughts were soon pushed aside and
I was once again able to visualize the invisible warfare raging all around
me. Thoughts such as those reminding me: “your times are in God’s hands,”
(Psalm 31:15) Mike. He won’t discharge you and bring you home a second sooner
or later than he has planned (Ephesians 1:11). I found myself humming Hymn’s
I couldn’t remember the name of as I left the doctor’s office. I was exuberant
over the possibility of being discharged and brought home or given the honor
and privilege of pressing onward as a Christian soldier. This was a remarkable
feat considering the fact that for
a very large part of my life I was a mega-hypochondriac as those closest to
me know. I praised God through whom all our blessings flow. Just to bring
you up to speed, that very special burden I have been carrying ever since
I finished preaching my Christmas message has been intensifying up to this
very moment. Please continue to pray for me and my family as I do you and
yours. We are parts of the same body, the body of Christ and we need each
other. Incidentally, I found out later the names of those beautiful hymns
were “Be Thou My Vision” and “On
Eagles Wings.”
But I still had to ask myself if I had really
been preaching sermons, and if so, is there a name for them. In
relating the "mechanics" of the delivery of a sermon later in his
book, Lloyd-Jones wrote: "What then is the chief thing? I say, none of
these mechanics except a bare minimum. What matters? The chief thing is the
love of God, the love of souls, a knowledge of the Truth, and the Holy Spirit
within you. These are the things that make the preacher. If he has the love
of God in his heart, and if he has a love for God; if he has a love for the
souls of men, and a concern about them; if he know the truth of the Scriptures;
and has the Spirit of God within him, that man will preach...."Quoting
the old Puritan Thomas Brooks, Beeke adds: “Ministers must preach Christ freely,
experimentally, as well as exemplarily. They must speak from the heart. They
must feel the weight, and the sweetness of those things upon their own souls
that they would give out to others. It is only the preaching of Christ that
changes the heart. This is what brings Christ and the soul together.”
While I was enjoying lunch this past week with
a couple of pastor friends I received the following feedback. “These sermons
are unique. They are each very creative ETHICAL style sermons as opposed
to Topical, Expository, etc. They challenge you to live out the ethical
implications of putting your beliefs into practice. In other words, they challenge
you to live out the teachings of Scripture.” This is exactly what I had
been doing. I told three stories but they weren’t fictional. Each
was a true story in which I shared parts of my own daily struggles just
as Paul did in every one of his letters. He poured out his heart to those
early Christians. Driven by his love for those folks and Christ’s church Paul
wrote:
1
And I, when
I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of
God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ
and him crucified. 3 And I was with you
in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not
in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
5 that your faith might
not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God, 1 Corinthians 2:1-5
(ESV).
Paul led by example and
that is exactly what I have been trying to do throughout my ministry. Before
ending I would like to share another opinion I received concerning my “Lament
Series.” “Mike, I like these sermons.
They are a very humble way of teaching spiritual truth.” Through today’s
message I hope and pray I have succeeded in showing you folks some of what
to expect in this war and how to biblically overcome every hit you take. (Please,
let me know!) And don’t ever forget to remember, you will take hits.
Lots of them! No Christian goes through this kind of raging battle without
often being wounded and sustaining painful losses. Not a single one of us
as I just shared in this message. But
if we rely on Christ for the strength we can vigorously and aggressively move
onward as a Christian soldier and watch Christ trample those demonic slime-ball
cosmic forces of darkness under our feet.
Lord willing, in a couple of weeks...
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